


eyes

by voidfoxstarlight



Series: Cousins [2]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast), Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Jon and Carlos are Cousins, cecil also has a lot of eyes, fanon-typical eyes, jon and cecil bond over having too many eyes, jon has so many eyes and he is not happy about it
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-22
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:16:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23254567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/voidfoxstarlight/pseuds/voidfoxstarlight
Summary: Jon has three important conversations with his family.
Relationships: Carlos (Welcome to Night Vale) & Jonathan Sims, Cecil Palmer & Jonathan Sims, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: Cousins [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1672039
Comments: 39
Kudos: 571





	1. Cecil

**Author's Note:**

> This is set probably like a year after the previous fic in this series. You don't have to read that one for this to make sense, as long as you know Jon and Carlos are cousins in this au.

Carlos and Martin are out buying groceries. This is the perfect opportunity to ask, but can he actually convince himself to ask? Jon picks at the end of his shirtsleeve. “Cecil? I was, ah, I wanted to know if I could ask you something a bit personal.”

Cecil cups his head in his chin. “Well, I suppose so.”

He twists the fabric, trying to parse a way to ask without making it a question.

Cecil seems to understand. “It’s okay if you compel me. I don’t think it would work even if you tried.”

“Right.” He bites his lip. “You have a third eye, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Can I see it?”

“Of course.” A line appears in Cecil’s forehead, looking at first like a mere wrinkle, then splitting the skin and bulging until an eye has formed there. It’s the same unnatural purple as his regular eyes.

“Can you… see out of it?”

“Yes.”

Jon bites his lip. “Is that the only extra eye you have?”

“Oh! Well, I don’t like to think of any of my eyes as _extra_ , but my back is just absolutely _covered_ in eyes. I don’t use them very often, because the inside of my shirt is not very interesting to look at, but there you have it.”

“How many eyes _do_ you have?”

Cecil tilts his head. “Hmm. I’ve never actually thought to count them. How many eyes do _you_ have?”

Jon swallows and looks down at his hands. “Twelve,” he whispers.

Even Cecil can’t fail to miss his shift in tone. “Jon? Is that… a bad thing?”

Jon chokes out a laugh that wants to be a sob. “Cecil, I know things like this are common here, but humans don’t usually have more than two eyes.”

“Well, yes, I did know that. But neither of us are human, so that’s not really an issue…?” Cecil sounds like he really, genuinely wants to help Jon feel better, but he doesn’t understand the problem in the first place.

“I know. I know I’m not human. But… just because I’m not human doesn’t mean I want to be _monstrous_.” He wraps his arms around himself and rocks back and forth. “I’m—this was supposed to be over! Jonah is dead, the Institute is just a regular academic building now, why is this _happening_ to me?”

“May I see your other eyes, Jon?”

Jon turns his head away, but opens all his eyes just the same. There are four extras on his face (two on either side, underneath his originals), two on each of his forearms by his wrists, and one each on his hands.

“They’re very pretty,” Cecil offers.

The extras are a bright, sickening green. Jon looks again at Cecil’s purple eyes. “Were your eyes always purple?” he asks, already knowing the answer.

“No. I think they changed when I started growing new ones.”

Which means Jon’s original eyes will probably start changing soon. “But I _like_ having brown eyes.” His voice is plaintive like a child’s, and to his horror, tears start leaking from all of his eyes.

Cecil starts to speak in the gentle voice Jon has heard him use on Carlos during panic attacks. “They might not change—or your new eyes might turn brown. I embraced the changes when they happened to me, but sometimes when I get nostalgic, my eyes all turn blue again. There’s not always a lot of… choice, about what you become when you’re an avatar, but I think my eye colour might have been my choice. It could be yours, too.”

“I wish I didn’t have any extra eyes.” Jon is properly weeping now, tears flowing rivers down his face and hands. “I wish they would all go away and leave me alone. What the hell am I supposed to do when I can’t hide them from Martin anymore? It hurts to keep them hidden.”

“Why would you have to keep them hidden from Martin? I don’t hide mine from Carlos.”

Jon fixes Cecil with a look of disbelief. “I can’t let Martin see these. He’d know what I’m becoming.”

It’s Cecil’s turn to stare disbelievingly. “Jon. I don’t mean to be rude, but I think you’re so afraid of change that you’re forgetting who you’re talking too. It’s okay to be scared of change, it’s a really scary thing, but not all change is bad! It’s hard to get through sometimes, but the changes you’re going through right now would be so much less scary if you talked about them with someone.

“I’m really happy you decided to talk to _me_ about them, because one, I’m honoured that you trust me so much, and two, because I went through the same changes! And speaking as someone who went through the same changes, I can promise you that they aren’t all bad. I didn’t turn into a monster after I grew more eyes, I could just see things from new angles. And that’s where a support system can be really helpful—Carlos and I see things from different angles all the time, and then we can each get a new perspective on things.

“I don’t think you should hide this from Martin. I think you should get his perspective on it. It makes things way easier when you’re not the only one trying to see what’s going on.”

Jon’s tears slow to a trickle. He sniffs and wipes his face with his sleeve. “I… thank you, Cecil.”

“Not a problem.” Cecil stands up to get a glass of water in one hand and a dish towel in the other. “It’s very important to hydrate after you cry. Especially when you have so many eyes.”

Jon takes the dish towel and pats his face and arms dry of tears. Slowly, his extra eyes fade away and sink back underneath his skin. He sips the water slowly, and he and Cecil sit in companionable silence until Carlos cheerful announces, “We’re home!” and he and Martin come into the kitchen to put away the groceries.


	2. Carlos

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Is it a science question?” Carlos points at a test tube full of something blue. “Can you pass me that test tube?”

Jon hands it to him. “No. It’s more of a… an emotions question? Relationship advice.”

“Yeah, sure.”

“How did you… When Cecil showed you his, uh, eyes for the first time, how did you react?”

“Hmm.” Carlos empties the test tube into a beaker and taps his chin. “I was… surprised, mostly? Not in a good way or a bad way, I just wasn’t expecting it.” He laughs a little. “I asked him if he knew what his anatomy looked like on the inside.”

Jon grins. “What did he say?”

“He said no. I asked if he would let me x-ray him and he said sure, so that was the first time he came to my house.”

“And? How’d it go?”

Carlos shakes his head in half amusement, half regret. “It broke my x-ray machine.”

Like Jon breaks cameras and modern recording devices. “Figures.”

“What does this have to do with relationship advice, by the way?”

Jon shifts uncomfortably in his chair, the levity evaporating from the situation like hydrogen peroxide left uncovered. “I’m… trying to gauge how Martin will react. When I show him my extra eyes.”

“Oh, so you have extras, too?” asks Carlos, weighing the beaker on his triple beam balance. “I don’t think you need to worry about how he’ll react. I mean, I’m sure you’ve both seen things way stranger than a few extra eyes.”

“But none of those things were _good_ things,” Jon mutters. “Stands to reason that this wouldn’t be either. I don’t want to be a, a reminder of all the bad things that have happened to us.”

“Do you know if he’s seen Cecil’s eyes?”

Jon frowns, trying to remember. “Maybe? I think… he might have seen them that time when Cecil was trying to learn how to barbecue, last time we visited.”

“When he was wearing the—” Carlos giggles—“the backless raincoat?”

Jon snorts. “Yes.”

“Do you remember how he reacted to seeing them?”

“Hmm. I—I don’t know. I don’t remember him saying anything.”

“If you don’t remember, he probably didn’t care.”

“Maybe. But it’s—it’s one thing, when it’s someone else. What if he reacts differently because it’s—” Jon looks away and rubs his arm. His voice drops to almost a whisper. “Because it’s _me_?”

Cecil stops messing with his science equipment. “Jon. Do you love Martin?”

“Wh—of course!”

“And does Martin love you?”

“Yes.”

“Then it’ll work out. It might not be easy, but you won’t—this isn’t going to ruin you, okay? You guys are strong together. You’ll work through this, because that’s who you are.”

“We are. We will.” Jon worries at his lower lip. “Do you have any… advice, on what not to do?”

“Mm… tell him before you show him. He’ll know what to expect and he won’t react badly because of shock. Maybe write down what you want to tell him beforehand?”

“Right.” Jon’s been making list after list of ways to tell Martin. He hasn’t used any yet, obviously, but it’s a comfort to know they’re there. “Thanks, Carlos.”

“Of course. That’s what cousins are for.”

They don’t hug—neither of them are fond of touch, except for in special circumstances—but Jon does sit quietly for the next half hour, listening to Carlos ramble happily about his experiment. That’s better than a hug in both their books.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter isn't too long, but I didn't feel like there was too much for them to talk about? I think Jon mostly needed a sounding board here.
> 
> Why was Cecil wearing a backless raincoat, you ask? He thought it was fashionable. He's Cecil.


End file.
